SENATOR Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. has put the blame on the executive department for the resignation of Sen. Ralph Recto as chairman of the Senate ways and means committee.

Marcos made the indictment of the executive branch on the floor during Monday’s session after senators debated on how to deal with the resignation of Recto and his move to withdraw the committee’s report on the controversial sin tax bill.

“What is happening here is that essentially, a chairman has reported out a bill and the administration, the executive department, has decided that they are not supportive of that bill and has put enough pressure now upon that chairman so that he feels the need to resign from his position and to withdraw the committee report,” he said.

Marcos strongly objected to the resignation of Recto even as he expressed opposition to the withdrawal of the committee report.

“We simply cannot do our work if we are looking over our shoulder and hoping that whatever we write into our committee report will be agreeable to the executive department. If we do that we might as well go home and be just the rubber stamp that they seem to want us to be,” he pointed out.

However, Marcos clarified that he was not against the expression of opinions of the executive body, or even exertion of pressure upon the senators.